Haven't seen any dead trees in any of your videos. No pine beetle kill in your area? How long will that tree you just chopped last, assuming you are going to use it for firewood?

Friendship/Love/Respect for all living things...

Yes there are plenty of dead-fall in my area, hard to see in my videos I guess. And yes, there are many, many pine beetles. However, the major cause of downed trees around me is wind. (as there is hardly an soil to root in, strong winds often uproot whole patches of forest) The beetles we have in central/northern Ontario are a local variety that the trees are well adapted to, and that are eaten by birds. They are not the invasive Asian species that have been decimating western woodlands in Washington and BC. Southern Ontario does have an invasive beetle called the Emerald Ash Borer, but Ash doesn't grow as far north as I am.

The trees should last my lifetime if taken care of properly. I am currently drying them in 10-16 ft sections in order to use them as timbers to construct out buildings next year. They will make excellent posts with the help of a small cheap chainsaw mount wood mill. Whatever is not straight enough for timbers will be burnt as campfire wood, as we only burn hardwood in the rocket mass heater.

Native Pine Beetle:

Invasive Pine Beetle:

Popcorn is now being served.

"Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold" -Bob Marley

I've been working on the video for a month and a half. I am glad to see it finished. The lake finally let my wife and I paddle back to civilization yesterday, and we had to fight 4 inch thick floating ice the whole way. The canoe trip, which usually takes less than 40 minutes, was over an hour and a half of picking and choosing our way through what little open water we could find.

Happy to be back in the land of showers beers and intertubes for the next couple days!

What's up realist newsers? Anything exciting happen while I was out? Is it world war 3 yet?

Popcorn is now being served.

"Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold" -Bob Marley

I've been working on the at video for a month and a half. I am glad to see it finished. The lake finally let my wife and I paddle back to civilization yesterday, and we had to fight 4 inch thick floating ice the whole way. The canoe trip, which usually takes less than 40 minutes, was over an hour and a half of picking and choosing our way through what little open water we could find.

Happy to be back in the land of showers beers and intertubes for the next couple days!

What's up realist newsers? Anything exciting happen while I was out? Is it world war 3 yet?

(05-02-2014 08:48 AM)Jsnip4 Wrote: Are you guys living out there or just spending the weekends?

We have been living there full time since last June, and working from the property. http://www.clearlakeecoretreat.com When we are not guiding clients through the lakes and woods, we make art, build things, clear trails, gather wild food, and fish.
The closest grocery store is about 100 miles from our house; so when we leave to get supplies, we tend to make a few days of it and go visiting.

How about you Jsnip? Any plans to get back out into the country?

Popcorn is now being served.

"Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold" -Bob Marley

Mama bears with new cubs knocking on the door for a bowl of hot porridge or soup? :)

Thanks JPM, glad to be back (for a little while).

Tried for some perch on our lake, none to be had. Others did well with northern pike, one lake over. The 46 inches of ice slowed most people down. My auger was bottomed out.

The earth stove took 3 days to heat back up in -25, but once it was hot it worked very nicely and burned even less wood then anticipated.

I've been seeing some juvenile bear tracks around for a few weeks now, but no sightings. I did however, get to see my first wild (living) wolf. It was running up the frozen lake, towards me. I got to check it out for well over a minute. It was about 150 yards away when it spotted me and made itself scarce. What a thrill!

I continue to keep porridge on hand, just in case.

Popcorn is now being served.

"Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold" -Bob Marley

Mama bears with new cubs knocking on the door for a bowl of hot porridge or soup? :)

Thanks JPM, glad to be back (for a little while).

Tried for some perch on our lake, none to be had. Others did well with northern pike, one lake over. The 46 inches of ice slowed most people down. My auger was bottomed out.

The earth stove took 3 days to heat back up in -25, but once it was hot it worked very nicely and burned even less wood then anticipated.

I've been seeing some juvenile bear tracks around for a few weeks now, but no sightings. I did however, get to see my first wild (living) wolf. It was running up the frozen lake, towards me. I got to check it out for well over a minute. It was about 150 yards away when it spotted me and made itself scarce. What a thrill!

Bears....do they feed, walk around your place mostly at night? Montana we had a black bear mother and her 2 cubs feed on grubs, downed tree, several nights....11-2am summer. We'd hear them snorting and pushing/digging the old wood, faint black splotches in the night. Never appeared in daytime.

Bears....do they feed, walk around your place mostly at night? Montana we had a black bear mother and her 2 cubs feed on grubs, downed tree, several nights....11-2am summer. We'd hear them snorting and pushing/digging the old wood, faint black splotches in the night. Never appeared in daytime.

Good to hear the earth stove is working well!

You're right, drilling early is the key. I would opt for foam rubber plugs. I've used young pine boughs successfully in the past.

We managed to find an 85 ft depth on our lake with a rope and lug nut, had the feeling we could have found a deeper spot yet, but didn't have the arms to keep auguring to find out.

The perch will be biting for a while yet. I'll find some.

Ya, the bears are mostly nocturnal. After they wake up, they are groggy and not that hungry for 2 weeks or so.

They woke up about 2 weeks ago. They are just starting to get alert and hungry now. Soon we'll be finding lots of overturned rocks and logs until the first of the berries start popping up.

I've only ever seen a handful of bears in the light of day. They tend to keep to themselves.

Popcorn is now being served.

"Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold" -Bob Marley

Yes...foam sounds like a better idea... 85ft sounds plenty deep to me. Do perch generally stay near the bottom regardless of depth in winter? Suspect they could be 20ft near the bottom or 85ft depending on their feeding patterns, temp, time......

Yes...foam sounds like a better idea... 85ft sounds plenty deep to me. Do perch generally stay near the bottom regardless of depth in winter? Suspect they could be 20ft near the bottom or 85ft depending on their feeding patterns, temp, time......

Perch can be found deep and shallow. I usually focus around 40+ ft, and jig just off the bottom. I never had any luck finding perch in shallows, although other do. Apparently the key is finding a large flat bottom transitioning slowly uphill. What I really need to do is map my lake with a depth finder!

Popcorn is now being served.

"Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold" -Bob Marley

I'm back in civilization for the weekend, stocking up on sundries and building materials.

The blackflies weren't bad this year, and only bit for about five days before they were killed off by a heatwave. The were however, replaced by buzzillions of mosquitoes. I am a few pints of blood shy.

The house continues to take most of my time, but I have got it to a place now where the big jobs are done, and only a few small projects remain. Now is the time to refocus my energy on building the lakefront guest house. The work never ends! :)

I have managed to find lots of time for fishing and swimming though, to keep up moral. Having caught so many 8-10 lb pike now, I have finally figured out how to get ALL the bones out of them. I am now sick of fish n chips.

We planted a garden 2 weeks ago, and everything is spouting quite nicely. Onions are doing gangbusters, and our beets, carrots, kale, and spinach are up too. Of course we've been dining on some wild greens like fiddle heads and violets as they come up too. Soon the water lily buds will be floating, they are good eatin'.

The night before we left, we were thrilled to have a rare 'Blanding's turtle' decide to lay here eggs in our yard! Wow! This is only the 3rd blanding's I've seen in my life.

Haven't seen any bears yet this year. Not hide nor hair nor track.

We have also managed to cut good portage trails trough about half a mile of bush to a couple of the more remote local lakes, and have ditched extra canoes at the trail head. Going 3 lakes over, to a "fly in only fishing lake" (lol) is now an easy task, without the added effort of having to carry a canoe each time. I will be trying to carve out some decent camps on these lakes this summer to establish a paddling route for our clients.

Things are great.

I am glad to see that BTC isn't at zero, WWIII is not yet underway, and the earth is still spinning.

My world is almost entirely doom-free.

Popcorn is now being served.

"Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold" -Bob Marley